Thinking About the Linked Pages From Your Article Marketing Content September 15th, 2009
In a recent article I wrote about the conflict we face in trying to serve two masters in content marketing. Here’s the issue boiled down to its root: Readers of our content are still in the early part of the information seeking stage of the purchasing decision continuum. Yet, because we want our links to optimize our money pages in our sites, the readers’ clicks on our article links will take them to a web page that assumes that they are ready to buy a particular alternative. In that article, I combined that conflict with another related issue: With good website design, each page should have a single purpose. That purpose is to satisfy our visitor’s desire. In other words, we should not [deliver a prospect to our money page until they already want to go there--in other words, they're ready to buy.]
I did not offer a solution in that original article. Simply bringing the problem to the attention of article marketers was my goal in that previous piece. Today, I’ll go that one additional step and give one answer to the quandary.
Two ways to solve the problem present themselves. One is to violate the rule of website design by letting our linked page offer two alternatives allowing our readers to satisfy their information seeking and provinding an opportunity to buy the product or service from the same page. The other is to provide two kinds of links in our articles. One link option or type leads to a landing page dedicated entirely to providing valuable information (and an opportunity to learn even more by signing up for our newsletter), while the other link category will direct the visitor to a product (or purchasing) page. In these cases, our anchor text must make clear what to expect on the landing page.
When presented with these two options, I recommend the second. Allow me to elaborate on why I endorse this approach and what the respective landing page for each type of link will contain.
Recall that the readers of our syndicated article want to gather information. If we want to entice them to click a link to actually come to our site, we must promise even more information that is pertient to them. I trust that I don’t have to tell you that we always must deliver what we promise our prospects. In order to encourage our readers to actually click our link, we must give them truly interesting and valuable information the first time, while simultaneously leaving them with the impression that there is still more to learn. Hence we link to a content page.
At the same time, within the syndicated article, we let our readers know that once they have gathered all the information they need to make a buying decision, they will find the product or service that will solve their problems right there on our site. By including that information, we have an opportunity to link to one of our selling pages largely for the purpose of search engine optimization.
It is always easier to logically include both types of links within our articles if we syndicate directly to websites that are within our general niche category; in those cases we can make our links contextual within the article, itself. On the other hand, when we publish on article directories, we must make the connection between our informational link and our selling link more quickly as it must fit within our resource box and not within the article.
On of first type of linked page, we will move our prospects along the decision continuum. Remember that the visitors have already been persuaded to accept our initial offer by clicking on our link, so they are in an agreeable frame of mind. We can now treat them as serious prospects and ramp up our selling strategy a bit. We shall offer them a link to the page where they can actually buy, but we focus primarily on getting them to take one more small step by asking for the contact information in exchange for the promise of even more valuable content.
In our syndicated article we use our content to sell our expertise. On the linked page, we’re selling our credibility and integrity. Once we have their contact information we can begin selling our product, subtly at first and then with increasing urgency.
Remember that the other type of link takes the clicker (or the search engine robot) to our page where we directly sell our product or service. The primary purpose of that link is increasing our SEO, so we must be especially careful to research and have anchor text that is a long tail keyword with implicit commercial intent.
We have different roles as marketers and authors. Wearing the marketing hat, our foremost goal is to make that sale, but as writers we worry about the flow of our prose even above its financial reward. First we sell the article readers on their need for more information and convince them that they can find that information by clicking our link. Second we sell the search engine robots on the accuracy of our description of our selling page by making sure that the anchor text and the page match in meaningful ways.
Article Websites As An Online Business September 4th, 2009
Most Internet marketers have been using articles to market their online businesses and this trend is likely to continue in the future too because of the prevalence of concepts such as Web 2.0. As such, creating and managing an articles website could be a very good business idea.
What Is An Article Website
Articles websites posts interesting and informative articles on a wide variety of topics. The articles are supplied by other business people who wish to direct traffic to their own website. The articles usually contain a link which the reader can use to visit the website if his interest is engaged. Generally, the link is in a bio box provided by the article website.
For an article website to be successful, it needs a constant stream of informative and interesting new articles. On most article websites, the subscribers do not pay a fee and provide all of the content. Subscribers chose the topics of th! e articles, but it is up to the administrator to establish guidelines and make sure that the articles follow the guidelines.
How Article Websites Make Money
You could run such a website. It is an in-thing nowadays. There are various such article directories on the Internet. You could check them out and probably even become an author on some of them and contribute your work so that you understand the manner in which they work.
It is vital to establish guidelines that require subscribers to provide informative articles. Good articles that are keyword rich and search engine optimized will drive traffic to the article website. Articles which are poorly written or contain no substantive information will not enhance an article website.
Being free does not mean you won’t earn anything. Your earning is through affiliate advertising such as Google AdSense which your website can use. Since your website is bound to become popular with all that keyword-rich content, you could earn a lot of money through affiliate advertising.
To maintain the quality of the articles, it may be necessary to hire proofreaders to screen each article and make sure that it follows the site’s guidelines. If the articles on your site are! not informative, interesting and well written, you will not be able to attract readers (traffic). Short, informative articles will generate traffic for your site and the sites of your subscribers. It is the job of the administrator to maintain quality control of the articles.
Article Websites As An Online Business September 1st, 2009
Article websites have become a lucrative business in the last several years. Article websites publish articles from subscribers who hope to increase their own website traffic by providing links in the articles back to their websites. The administrator of the website simply provides a publishing platform.
The Concept of an Articles Website
The concept of articles websites is very simple. People put their informative articles on these websites along with a link to their website in a bio box provided below the article. When someone reads the article, if they are impressed by it, they will want to visit the website by clicking on the link. This is how the website gets traffic.
For an article website to be viable, the articles must be informative, interesting and well written. It is necessary for the administrator of the website to check articles before posting them. Subscribers do not usually pay a fee to post articles. The subjects of the articles cover a wide range of topics chosen by the providers. The topics relate to the individual provider’s website.
How Article Websites Make Money
You could run such a website. It is an in-thing nowadays. There are various such article directories on the Internet. You could check them out and probably even become an author on some of them and contribute your work so that you understand the manner in which they work.
You might have paid or free services. Most articles websites are free. Anyone can become a member and post their articles. As the content on the website grows, the search engines start ranking them better and with growing popularity you gain more writers.
Optimizing website traffic is the most important job of the administrator. Advertisers are drawn to sites with the greatest amount of traffic. It is essential that the quality of the articles be high to attract and retain readers. Traffic, whether from new visitors or repeat visitors, will bring in advertisers.
To maintain the quality of the articles, it may be necessary to hire proofreaders to screen each article and make sure that it follows the site’s guidelines. If the articles on your site are! not informative, interesting and well written, you will not be able to attract readers (traffic). Short, informative articles will generate traffic for your site and the sites of your subscribers. It is the job of the administrator to maintain quality control of the articles.
